And so it begins...(tracking Coach Prime decommits/transfers)

[Stan Raymond]

Looks like Colorado has lost another assistant, I believe this makes 6. Sal Sunseri the DL coach appears to have left, he was a very experienced College coach with stops at Alabama, Tennessee and the NFL. Replaced by Damione Lewis who was on staff as an analyst, he was an assistant DL coach in Seattle for a few years and an assistant athletic director of football/player development at FIU. Maybe he will do great, but it sure looks like a sizable downgrade. Sanders staff has been seriously downgraded this season, personally I think every replacement is a worse coach than their replacement.

Just another interesting thing on Colorado. Besides the interesting and unique way of building a roster that is small and lacks underclassmen, Sanders has replaced experienced and some very good assistants with coaches with very little experience but a lot of NFL playing time. Unconventional and not the way I would do it, but it is interesting to see how it works out. College experience of replacement coaches:

Lewis - DL - assistant athletic director of football/player development at FIU in 2019
Shurmur - OC - Stanford OL 1998, Michigan St TE, OL and ST 1990-1997, Michigan St GA 1988-89
Livingston - DC - Vanderbilt defensive quality control in 2011, Safeties at Furman in 2010
Loadholt - OL - Oklahoma offensive analyst 2022-23, Ole Miss offensive analyst 2020-21, UCF offensive assistant 2018-2019
Phillips - WR -Has a lot of experience mostly WR and passing game at Texas State, Houston, Baylor, SMU, Kansas, Oregon State, Utah State, Jackson State, Hamilton Tiger-Cats
Dancy - OLB - HC Mississippi Valley State HC 2018-22, Mississippi Valley State DC 2015-2017, Paine DC 2014, Jackson State Safties 2012-2013

Actual P5 assistant coaching experience on staff is Shurmur back in 1988-98, and Phillips in short stints. That's it nobody else has been an actual P5 assistant before.

The 4 returning assistants

Hart and Mathis have only coached at Trinity Christian HS and Jackson State before Colorado.

Harrell, Bartolone have experience at a variety of small college and G5 schools like Alabama State, FAU, Howard, Bowie State, Morgan State, Florida A&M, Texas Southern, Whittier College, St Lawrence, Carleton College, and Nevada then they both coached for Sanders at Jackson State.

No wonder they keep bragging about years in the NFL as the collective experience at Major College Football is very poor.

So what where these 6 new coaches doing before hired by Sanders:

Shurmur - Unemployed for a year after Broncos fired him
Livingston - Secondary coach for Bengals
Loadholt - Oklahoma Offensive Analyst
Lewis - hired as an analyst from Seahowk assistant DL coach then promoted to DL coach this year
Phillips - Hamilton Tiger-Cats WR coach
Dancy - hired as an analyst from Mississippi Valley State HC (he resigned but was 10-38 as HC), then promoted to OLB coach this year

The other 4 Hart, Mathis, Harrell and Bartolone came from Jackson St with Sanders before last season.

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

Looks like Colorado has lost another assistant, I believe this makes 6. Sal Sunseri the DL coach appears to have left, he was a very experienced College coach with stops at Alabama, Tennessee and the NFL.

Colorado loses another Sal.

 

[Drue629]

I can't wait to see how that goes over in the locker room.

 

[huskerj12]

Is this "Lulu" in the room with us right now, Deion?

 

[2010sarenevercomingback]

Is this "Lulu" in the room with us right now, Deion?

 

[huskerj12]

I love the idea that Deion Sanders has a voice in his head who he calls Lulu, and Lulu is the one who tells him to be insane.

 

[lee_carvallo_12]

While our players are doing dumb shit like getting ready to start fall camp, Travis and shadildo will spend 2 days playing a video game that they are in

Hope the game is realistic enough that Mike Vick can satisfy his lust for dog blood by chainsawing a pitbull's head off on the VT at Lane stadium.

 

[HerbRedman]

I can't wait to see how that goes over in the locker room.

It's weird bc Deion himself has already done a ton of shit talking about his own o-line. Granted that was last year's and this year's is supposed to be "way better"

But in a weird way, classless shit talking about your own is actually a key part of their culture.

 

[Cornicator]

Sal Sunseri hasn't been with that team since January. Lewis was basically handing the D-Line coaching duties through the Spring, so its not really as big of an adjustment as you might think.

But the announcement tells me that CU is hurting for money. Why? They had to pay out Sunseri's contract thru the of June. I don't think that program was able to afford hiring a new D-Line coach until July 1st. I want to highlight some information about CU's defensive line because their fans are exalting a really bizarre narrative. This is the group they have under scholarship:

SHANE COKES 6’3, 280 DT - 2023 transfer from Dartmouth - Started 9 games for CU last season had 0 sacks and 0 tackles for loss. He was really quite terrible.

RAYYAN BUELL 6’3, 275 DT- transfer from Ohio U. 13 career starts - 12 tackles for loss - All MAC 3rd team

AMARI MCNEILL 6’4, 290 DT- Transfer from Tennessee in 2023 - had 3 tackles in 2 seasons at Tennessee - 4 starts at CU last season had good games vs. Colorado State, Arizona State, and Oregon State - 0 tackles vs. Nebraska

ANQUIN BARNES 6’5, 315 DT - Transfer from Bama - Spent 3 seasons with the Tide and played in ZERO Games

CHIDOZIE NWANKWO 5’11, 290 DT - 33 career starts at Houston (9 of them in the Big 12, 24 in AAC). - 94 total tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 4 sacks in career

TAUREAN CARTER 6’3, 305 - transfer from Arkansas - 5 career starts in 3 seasons - 60 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks

TAWFIQ THOMAS 6’4, 300 DT - transfer from Louisville - 0 starts in 2 seasons - 12 total tackles, 0 tackles for loss 0 sacks

QUENCY WIGGINS 6’5, 275 DT - transfer from LSU - 0 starts in 2 seasons, only played in 9 total games. - 7 tackles, 1 TFL.



8 Defensive Linemen at CU.
- 63 career starts
- 27 career starts at the Power 5 level


Nebraska's defensive line:

Ty Robinson - 33 Power 5 Starts
Nash Hutmacher - 15 Power 5 Starts
Jimari Butler - 6 Power 5 Starts
Cameron Lenhardt - 4 Power 5 Starts


4 Nebraska defensive linemen have more total starts and power 5 starts than 8 defensive linemen at Colorado.

 

[Jim14510]

Sal Sunseri hasn't been with that team since January. Lewis was basically handing the D-Line coaching duties through the Spring, so its not really as big of an adjustment as you might think.

But the announcement tells me that CU is hurting for money. Why? They had to pay out Sunseri's contract thru the of June. I don't think that program was able to afford hiring a new D-Line coach until July 1st. I want to highlight some information about CU's defensive line because their fans are exalting a really bizarre narrative. This is the group they have under scholarship:

SHANE COKES 6’3, 280 DT - 2023 transfer from Dartmouth - Started 9 games for CU last season had 0 sacks and 0 tackles for loss. He was really quite terrible.

RAYYAN BUELL 6’3, 275 DT- transfer from Ohio U. 13 career starts - 12 tackles for loss - All MAC 3rd team

AMARI MCNEILL 6’4, 290 DT- Transfer from Tennessee in 2023 - had 3 tackles in 2 seasons at Tennessee - 4 starts at CU last season had good games vs. Colorado State, Arizona State, and Oregon State - 0 tackles vs. Nebraska

ANQUIN BARNES 6’5, 315 DT - Transfer from Bama - Spent 3 seasons with the Tide and played in ZERO Games

CHIDOZIE NWANKWO 5’11, 290 DT - 33 career starts at Houston (9 of them in the Big 12, 24 in AAC). - 94 total tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 4 sacks in career

TAUREAN CARTER 6’3, 305 - transfer from Arkansas - 5 career starts in 3 seasons - 60 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks

TAWFIQ THOMAS 6’4, 300 DT - transfer from Louisville - 0 starts in 2 seasons - 12 total tackles, 0 tackles for loss 0 sacks

QUENCY WIGGINS 6’5, 275 DT - transfer from LSU - 0 starts in 2 seasons, only played in 9 total games. - 7 tackles, 1 TFL.



8 Defensive Linemen at CU.
- 63 career starts
- 27 career starts at the Power 5 level


Nebraska's defensive line:

Ty Robinson - 33 Power 5 Starts
Nash Hutmacher - 15 Power 5 Starts
Jimari Butler - 6 Power 5 Starts
Cameron Lenhardt - 4 Power 5 Starts


4 Nebraska defensive linemen have more total starts and power 5 starts than 8 defensive linemen at Colorado.

Good info but you don't need 8. I imagine if you took the next 4 Nebraska guys that's not going to add many starts.

Looks they have a few with decent experience.

 

[Cornicator]

Good info but you don't need 8. I imagine if you took the next 4 Nebraska guys that's not going to add many starts.

Looks they have a few with decent experience.

Their two players with the most experience, Nwanko and Cokes, would be 3rd string at Nebraska. My point is if you're going to bring in multiple transfers, it doesn't really benefit you to bring in a shit ton of dudes who have very little game experience.

 

[Jim14510]

Their two players with the most experience, Nwanko and Cokes, would be 3rd string at Nebraska. My point is if you're going to bring in multiple transfers, it doesn't really benefit you to bring in a shit ton of dudes who have very little game experience.

If you had zero depth to start with it does.

 

[HerbRedman]

CHIDOZIE NWANKWO 5’11, 290 DT -

 

[Stan Raymond]

Sal Sunseri hasn't been with that team since January. Lewis was basically handing the D-Line coaching duties through the Spring, so its not really as big of an adjustment as you might think.

But the announcement tells me that CU is hurting for money. Why? They had to pay out Sunseri's contract thru the of June. I don't think that program was able to afford hiring a new D-Line coach until July 1st. I want to highlight some information about CU's defensive line because their fans are exalting a really bizarre narrative. This is the group they have under scholarship:

SHANE COKES 6’3, 280 DT - 2023 transfer from Dartmouth - Started 9 games for CU last season had 0 sacks and 0 tackles for loss. He was really quite terrible.

RAYYAN BUELL 6’3, 275 DT- transfer from Ohio U. 13 career starts - 12 tackles for loss - All MAC 3rd team

AMARI MCNEILL 6’4, 290 DT- Transfer from Tennessee in 2023 - had 3 tackles in 2 seasons at Tennessee - 4 starts at CU last season had good games vs. Colorado State, Arizona State, and Oregon State - 0 tackles vs. Nebraska

ANQUIN BARNES 6’5, 315 DT - Transfer from Bama - Spent 3 seasons with the Tide and played in ZERO Games

CHIDOZIE NWANKWO 5’11, 290 DT - 33 career starts at Houston (9 of them in the Big 12, 24 in AAC). - 94 total tackles, 12 tackles for loss, 4 sacks in career

TAUREAN CARTER 6’3, 305 - transfer from Arkansas - 5 career starts in 3 seasons - 60 tackles, 6.5 tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks

TAWFIQ THOMAS 6’4, 300 DT - transfer from Louisville - 0 starts in 2 seasons - 12 total tackles, 0 tackles for loss 0 sacks

QUENCY WIGGINS 6’5, 275 DT - transfer from LSU - 0 starts in 2 seasons, only played in 9 total games. - 7 tackles, 1 TFL.



8 Defensive Linemen at CU.
- 63 career starts
- 27 career starts at the Power 5 level


Nebraska's defensive line:

Ty Robinson - 33 Power 5 Starts
Nash Hutmacher - 15 Power 5 Starts
Jimari Butler - 6 Power 5 Starts
Cameron Lenhardt - 4 Power 5 Starts


4 Nebraska defensive linemen have more total starts and power 5 starts than 8 defensive linemen at Colorado.

Colorado is going to have issues stopping the run with that group and their LBs. Teams like Oklahoma St, Kansas St, Utah, Kansas, Arizona and Nebraska are going to almost run at will against this defense. Once again it's more offseason hype for Colorado than actual improvements to the team.

 

[HerbRedman]

Colorado is going to have issues stopping the run with that group and their LBs. Teams like Oklahoma St, Kansas St, Utah, Kansas, Arizona and Nebraska are going to almost run at will against this defense. Once again it's more offseason hype for Colorado than actual improvements to the team.

Just to play devil's advocate though: a lot of times these issues don't fully manifest until 4-5 games into the season (OCs have more film on you, injuries pile up, mental identities get established like 'we really do suck at stopping the run').

So I don't think CU's defensive flaws will be on full display in game 2 like they will be in game 10. UNLESS NDSU goes for 250 yds on the ground against you - then it's full blown panic mode.

 

[BIGSTICK67]

Just to play devil's advocate though: a lot of times these issues don't fully manifest until 4-5 games into the season (OCs have more film on you, injuries pile up, mental identities get established like 'we really do suck at stopping the run').

So I don't think CU's defensive flaws will be on full display in game 2 like they will be in game 10. UNLESS NDSU goes for 250 yds on the ground against you - then it's full blown panic mode.

Good post.

It'd have been ideal for us if we played CU in the 4th game. But hell, at least we didn't start on the road in Shitville, Indiana or Frankfurt, Germany against a Power 5 team.

 

[ShortSideOption]

I can forgive Rhule for a loss to Colorado in Boulder when he picked the wrong transfer QB in his first year. Colorado had momentum, and Sims just pissed his pants everywhere. I'm more concerned about our foundation and how we are building our team and roster.

Year 2 at home, where Colorado has done a complete overhaul of their roster for the second year in a row, losing both coordinators, having guys that were Louis transfer out because the culture was bad, playing at home at night. It will be inexcusable if we lose this game IMO. I'm not saying i'm out on Rhule if we lose, i'm just saying if what he is preaching is working we win by a touchdown pretty easily.

I liken it to when I got worried about Frost in year 2. 2018 he got a pass because it was all new. But when you beat Minnesota year 1 then get trounced by them year 2, or narrowly lose to Colorado in year 1 then lose to a first year coach in your second year, you should start seeing dividends in year 2. You have to be 2-0 after the Colorado game this year.

 

[Stan Raymond]

I can forgive Rhule for a loss to Colorado in Boulder when he picked the wrong transfer QB in his first year. Colorado had momentum, and Sims just pissed his pants everywhere. I'm more concerned about our foundation and how we are building our team and roster.

Year 2 at home, where Colorado has done a complete overhaul of their roster for the second year in a row, losing both coordinators, having guys that were Louis transfer out because the culture was bad, playing at home at night. It will be inexcusable if we lose this game IMO. I'm not saying i'm out on Rhule if we lose, i'm just saying if what he is preaching is working we win by a touchdown pretty easily.

I liken it to when I got worried about Frost in year 2. 2018 he got a pass because it was all new. But when you beat Minnesota year 1 then get trounced by them year 2, or narrowly lose to Colorado in year 1 then lose to a first year coach in your second year, you should start seeing dividends in year 2. You have to be 2-0 after the Colorado game this year.

The second year usually tells a lot about how a head coach's era will go. Colorado game is huge, really for both sides. Whoever wins gets to proclaim that this is the way to build a roster, develop talent and play college football. Now I won't be all out on Rhule if we do lose, because this isn't the end state that Rhule is building towards, it takes years to build a program the way Rhule is doing it. But there will be a lot of fans that will be upset and jump off the cliff, there will be media doubting Rhule's way of building and touting Sanders' way. This is shaping up into a very big game that is a way to prove which coaching principles are right. Shouldn't come down to one game, but that is the way it will be portrayed.

 

[Poor_and_Stupid]

I can forgive Rhule for a loss to Colorado in Boulder when he picked the wrong transfer QB in his first year. Colorado had momentum, and Sims just pissed his pants everywhere. I'm more concerned about our foundation and how we are building our team and roster.

Year 2 at home, where Colorado has done a complete overhaul of their roster for the second year in a row, losing both coordinators, having guys that were Louis transfer out because the culture was bad, playing at home at night. It will be inexcusable if we lose this game IMO. I'm not saying i'm out on Rhule if we lose, i'm just saying if what he is preaching is working we win by a touchdown pretty easily.

I liken it to when I got worried about Frost in year 2. 2018 he got a pass because it was all new. But when you beat Minnesota year 1 then get trounced by them year 2, or narrowly lose to Colorado in year 1 then lose to a first year coach in your second year, you should start seeing dividends in year 2. You have to be 2-0 after the Colorado game this year.

Is there such a thing as “easily” winning by a touchdown at Nebraska? My PTSD is off the charts. Personally I think it would be more miraculous if we won by 7 than it would be if we won by 28.

 

[Cornicator]

Good post.

It'd have been ideal for us if we played CU in the 4th game. But hell, at least we didn't start on the road in Shitville, Indiana or Frankfurt, Germany against a Power 5 team.

This is a solid call out. Hard to believe that Nebraska will open the season with a non con home game for the first time since 2019.